It’s a place where the sky never shone blue.

Orange skies that are always threatening to melt everything under.

This sky always has this stem-like lightning spreading.

A geothermal sky.

A city full of towers of glass and steel skyscrapers packed edge to edge without any room to breathe.

Men, women, and they wore masks to breathe some parts of the city.

An alarm rang. People calmly went to shelters that popped out of the shoulder-pave and sidewalk to enter the shelters below.

“Where am I?” said Kato.

He looked around.

This city.

This smell.

This alarm.

The dog melting as the geothermal sky erupts.

Like a cauldron boiling.

Emergency water cooling system worked hard to keep the city cool.

Billions of gallons of water flooding the city to keep it all cool. that all came from the ocean.

Make sure that nothing melts.

Kato looked at his left arm.

Chromed and made of tantalum carbide and tungsten and titanium with copper engraved linens.

He saw the date.

The ankle-high leg and then despaired at the sight of the city and the memory.

“I can’t move,” thought Kato.

He relieved the memory of an aerial vehicle scanning for damages alongside a swarm of repair drones. He walked this alley and got invited by a customized woman who sold sex and waving his hand and being cursed as his junior wasn’t working.

He recalled entering a shop located in the shopping district where they said it was kept natural.

He entered a shop.

Caught sight of a prized rose with a five thousand price tag. A red rose that could stay alive for five years with its container.

He took it and walked shoulder-to-shoulder with faceless people with AR-glasses and engraved circuits in the form of tattoos eyeing his rose. He recalled pointing his nuller at them.

Armor-piercing, incendiary, and explosive rounds. A layer of translucent light covers his arms, shielding him from them.

His left eye calculates the risk and his aim assistant mod markers showing where to hit based on the position of his hand.

“He’s chipped and shielded hard. Let’s go. This shit isn’t worth it.”

A man spits on the concrete road.

He continued moving on congested markets and streets and living alleys. He came across a digital billboard showing prices of tickets to utopic havens.

Just a bit more.

Just a bit more cash and they can move out.

Away from this city.

Away from this life.

A dream of a dream.

He thought.

His thoughts continued down the lanes and crosswalks. He saw a digital sign pointing him to a dome. The orange sky turned digitally blue. A cool wind brings down on him and he lets out a long sight as he strode forward, entering a street full of block houses with small gardens.

He took his mask off and caught the clean air with his nose. He greeted people. Waved them goodbye as he found an area of the dome separated from the previous communities.

He took a step on the security gate and had his chip scanned and his retinas identified before entering. A turret followed him in.

“That you, Kato?”

“Aunty Mina,” Kato said.

“You back? Your wifey’s been mad depress about you. Probably think that you are dead. Anyway, when’s the due date?”

“Soon, I think.”

“You invite me to the feast, you hear?”

“Just don’t let them hear it.”

“Good man!”

Kato bid goodbye and resumed walking down the sidewalk. He stopped to look at the two foot tall man carrying a rucksack. He raised one brow and then waved his burly arm.

“Kato Lores, how is it?”

“Fine. You coming home? How’s SA?”

“Terrible. Pays good but it's like bullying the weak. Got enough to rest for eight months. Are you staying too?”

“Got the job done.”

“That was a military contract right, you sure that someone ain’t angry?”

“I don’t know. I hope not.”

Attacking a military supply base in the guise of mercs. He’d take another contract, and now that he thought about it. There were many red flags on it.

But he didn’t care.

To live and die.

It didn’t matter back then.

He got closer to the shared houses.

His heart ached.

Drumming like it wouldn’t stop.

“A vivid dream,” Kato thought. “A painful one that I can’t escape now.”

A surprisingly normal house with bridges connecting the houses in this one big island where they could live quietly. Not far from this was a church, an old church that still had an Orthodox Church Priest preaching. Fifty people always attend the masses. He got married there with most of the community curious enough to attend. They didn’t attend for him, they attended for only. Their girl falls for a mercenary she met in the bar.

How many big brothers did he have to brawl to get their approval? To make them believe that he wasn’t playing her heart. All of them wanted to protect her smile. She was one of those that changed the mood of the room when she entered.

They loved her.

Kato loved her more than they.

He slowly climbed the stairs, and yet for once Kato wanted to wake up from this dream.

How sweet.

How lovely.

And so long gone.

He knocked on the door slowly. Pacing around the door like a kid that was unable to calm down.

He could hear footsteps from behind the door. Something was cooking and there was that familiar homely smell of home cooked food. Never really went out to restaurants and diners to eat. Never had take-out because she does the cooking herself.

Always cherished it.

Always loved it more than her community work.

How did he get so lucky to find such a decent woman in a city with a burning sky?

Please no.

Not this dream.

This memory is a sweet nightmare.

“Kato?”

A voice so soft. The door opened and there was no one until he looked down. Wearing a duster dress from centuries ago. She was fond of old styles from decades ago. Her face changes as she guests the same old tease.

“Yes, yes, I’m so small… bully.”

Then she smiled as usual.

She danced around his arms and then planted her head on his chest. She grabbed his head and inspected him for any wounds.

“No wounds? No injuries?”

“No, ma’am.”

“You shouldn’t have brought that.”

“I have the cash.”

She protested but still took it with her. She placed it below the cupboard. 

Kato pressed his chin on her shoulder. His hands on her growing tummy.

“How are you two?”

“I’m doing fine, we’re doing fine.”

“You got all your checkups? Eating healthy?”

“Aunty takes me. Everyone’s a worrywart to be honest. Just because I have a big stomach doesn’t mean that I’m so fragile.”

He tried to smell her scent.

He couldn’t remember.

He hated that he couldn’t remember.

Her touch wasn’t around and yet the voice said otherwise.

“Still smells so good. Hmm, a bit milky though?”

“Well… my breasts have been growing. Aunty said that it’s normal… I must have a lot of milk.”

“That’s good.”

She pried his hands and went to the kitchen.

Kato activated the locks on his systems and then entered safe mode. He hurried to the kitchen. Carried the pot from her and then placed it on the middle of the table.

“How was work?”

“Fine. It was rather easy. It’s not everyday we get to fight.”

“Have you been thinking about what I suggested?”

“I did,” Kato nodded. “It’s a good offer. Uh, besides, I think things are heating up in the center so I don’t have to. I promised, right? We need this and I got it with no drama.”

“Thank Christ that you did.”

“I don’t see you wearing your blue checked ribbon today.”

“Oh, I lost it.”

“Wasn’t that your lucky ribbon?”

“It was, but I don’t think it matters much. Or do you not like my new hairstyle?”

“You look pretty with long hair.”

“Hmph! You must be excited to pull it… well, sorry mister perv, you aren’t going to enjoy it much. Long hair is tiresome to keep.”

She opened the pot of beef stew. Kato widened his eyes at it.

“You didn’t hold back today!” said Kato, clearly excited.

“My husband’s back home after two months. I thought I’d be nicer.”

Kato couldn’t remember the taste.

The smell of it.

The conversation that followed.

Moments he took for granted.

Moments that he should have treasured more.

With his mind in the cloud and his body warming up to the comfort she gave.

Every moment that he could remember and eternalize within.

He shouldn’t take it all for granted.

The memory lasts more than it should.

Slowly creeping up to that moment.

To that damned moment that he could go back and change.

He wanted to wake up before she mentioned it.

Before she stubbornly insisted on going with him and riding on the back of a motorcycle.

What was he thinking?

He hated himself.

He loathed the man who dotted too much on his wife.

“I wanna go to the market.”

“We can have it delivered. Also, uh, you’re making clothes?”

“Grandma said it's good.”

“Oh. But are you sure?”

“Pretty please?”

“You know I can’t refuse you.”

A foolish thought.

He took the keys and prepared the motorcycle. He searched the garage for the helmets and found them. She carried a shopping bag that day. She said that it was good for the environment as if you could save it.

He recalled driving out of the community.

He saw her Aunty.

“Please take care of him as always Aunty!”

He found nothing odd to it.

And now he thought of that as a jinx.

He was reckless and hopeful that none would happen.

“We should choose a name already.”

“Excited much? Well, let’s talk about it when we get home.”

“You’re always sweet to me.”

“I know right? I guess I am–”

His eyes widened at the speeding car.

His reflexes burned up and everything slowed down to a halt as the back of the motorcycle shattered at impact.

He could remember clearly.

Her dumbfounded gaze.

The blood oozing out of her orifices.

The sound of her spine cracking.

Him being too late to wrap his arms around her.

The way she curled to protect her stomach as if natural.

How his arms failed him as he slammed on the k-rail barrier with his arms barely moving.

How she smashed her head on the guard rail.

How her arms remained on her stomach.

He could smell the blood and the leaking oil and screeching of brakes.

Her tiny soft cries as she called for their child while having no movement in her eyes.

The pain on his right arm as he carried her while the back of his elbow bled.

How he looked through a broken retina and a piece of glass stabbed on his right eye’s tear duct.

His heart shatters piece by piece as she slowly loses her life in front of him. With that dim hope that her child at least was okay.

He found no words coming out of his mouth.

Mind emptied out like something just took away everything.

The scream that should have come out didn’t.

The cries that should have roared out didn’t erupt.

Chest carved out and all the color in his life turning black and white as her breath stilled.

As he watched everything passed by.

Mourning her.

Living life as if it was a hassle.

Giving in to the rage, venting to the world and finding peace because of the warmth she left behind only for two bullets to enter his stomach.

He stared at the barrel of the weapon of the man who betrayed them.

And with a bang he was back on a bed with a different face.

In a different time and a world where there was no trace of her or his life.

Only memories remained.

Memories fading and intertwining with another.